1979-end...Exit Stage Right!

[signals]

I keep remembering things that were a blur and come back slowly. Example that WOW leader from before that I called a B, well she was a Corps. So basically that year we had 31/2 Corps(A married couple, their kid and the B. I also remember that the couple had a believer living with them. It was a believer that had graduated PFAL with me. Anyway, I could have sworn that grad went WOW with me, but he actually went in '78, after living with the Corps couple. Another grad and I had signed up in '77. He went to Deluth, Minnesota which he considered a hicktown. Get this...where he was from is still a redneck, backward town of about 500 or so!

He also had the most gorgeous sister(real) I ever laid my eyes on. No female believers from my parts looked like that! Oh, come on, like most of you weren't driven to TWI because of hormones??? They were both going WOW, and I thought...'You know if I stay for the WOW, I'll get to see his sister for a few days more!' But I really did go because I was committed. Just had received too much blindness of the real world because for days we saw nothing but believers...morning, noon, and night. It was like a Holy Woodstock!

I remember one night Craig coming on stage just to warn people that they were aware of the pot smoking and that it wasn't welcomed there and blah blah blah...I felt I could use a joint just about now! Too bad I was high on the Word...yeah, the word tired! Hey, it's 1979 not 1977!

So that other grad of my year went in 1978. He never wondered why I left or anything. Just said he was going. Now we had good times with this guy, so the night before he was leaving for the ROCK(btw, do they still have those stupid green bumper stickers that people watch for? side story...Uncle Harry and a friend...

the friend told me so if he lied blamed him because Uncle Harry died before my cult induction...would go out at the ROA and put stickers on the cars that didn't have them)we went out and had a good time. I wasn't going, for obvious reasons. He wrote me once, and never again.

I remember 1979 for The China Syndrome and 3 Mile Island. Coincidence? Since I joined the Way, I became good friends with someone who worked at a power plant. He was in longer than me. At the ROA he was generous with his Diet Pepsi which had saccarine in it. We would point out the cancer dangers, and he would reply:D-->o I look like a hamster to you? Well, dude, yeah you do...I thought! He did look kind of like a human hamster! He worked at a Power Plant(=$) and had to explain a million times why it wouldn't happen here, and how nuclear energy is safe, drawings, charts, graphs, oh my!

In 1979 I was still going to college and working part-time, plus working at school on a work study program. I rented a room in a house. Although it was hard to make ends meet, I managed. My boss at my job was that other believer who married that WOW, so he helped me with side jobs, or work on saturdays. We also talked alot, and sometimes it was to the point of getting on his nerves.

Around April he asked me if I wanted to move in with him for a few months...he made this clear, because he was getting married and he didn't feel appropriate with anyone staying with him or his new bride. I agreed and actually moved out a month before of schedule.

Now, he lived in a well-to-do neighborhood. He was in charge of a business. If he didn't make fellowship, they were always happy to see him when he attended. Me? I was a scum bag student who had left the WOW, didn't go to the ROCK and needed to participate in fellowship. Not to mention that my ABS quota had gone below the 10% on your way to heaven minimum! And like a roadrunner cartoon, you could always hear that sound of Wile E Coyote going over the cliffff....*poof!* I kept returning to their punishment...well for as long as I could.

I draw a blank, because I couldn't remember if the next Corps member arrived in'78 or 79? It was probably in sept. of '78...you know because those others set the stage for the coming of the HARDCORE CORPS...unless your a personal friend that comes on tour with me, after all we don't know any of these peons and So What! I seem to remember he had to find an abode, and when he did everybody helped. Sometimes that come and pick us up after late night twig meetings because work needed to be done or something. Then his friends came and started dictating orders to everyone.

Around June I had found a one bedroom and lived by myself. I remember going to twigs, but don't remember whose or where. I would eventually go to the Corps twigs, but at this time I think I was going with the original area wayers that remained. Perhaps the Corps twigs were on special nights when work needed to be done. The rent or the overhead on his place had to be staggering. It was like a 12 room sort of old mansion.

Wherever I went and whatever I did, I began to say it was time to get the hell out of dodge, or be killed by the physical labor alone. Therefore I received the spirit of bitterness or attitude. In the background my boss and his friend(who wasn't in a cult) began to hate what the Way was doing to his marriage as far as his wife being so consumed by 'the word!'

What came as a shock to me, was when Corpse man thought I would be blessed to have a roomate. They didn't ask or anything, but rather impose. This was around January or winter of '80! A man and his child started coming to my twigs, who for some reason took a liking to me. After awhile his son and him are at my apartment when I return to work. At times he would go bug the neighbors to spread the word that a child of god lives here. For a few days he just wanted to hang-out. Then he'd stay late. Suddenly his kid was asleep and he didn't want to wake him. Either way, when it got too late my attitude was I'm going to bed and I don't want strangers in my house now get out and good night and god bless...SLAM I think this must have ****** someone off because at the next meeting I got the cold shoulders. Fine, before ABS, I got up waved good-bye and left.

Next day I happen to run into my original ditzy twig leader, and you have to love communication breakdowns. She said, "Bless your heart, for taking_____ and his son to be your roomate. You are truly blessed!" 'HUH?' Yeah Corps boy was giving me a roomate so my needs would be better met. Awful presumptious seeing I had a lease, and had come to enjoy my privacy. I just told her to go talk to the Corps household, because no ones going to bless me in my house. I couldn't take the privacy invasion from WOW, I wasn't going to put up with it off the field.

The timeline is hard to follow here. I claim I left in '82, but it may have been more like late '80 or early '81. My boss was ready to bolt with his wife and it was after Reagan won in '80. His friend took over the company. He went to bigger and better things that TWI could no longer touch. The friend kept plugging how we were being manipulated by a cult. My friend and I were still thinking Jonestown. He claims to(spiritually) have left TWI then, but had to play Their Game for his wife's sake. I began to get the message but it took longer to sink in, until they both took me aside and started drilling me to what was going on. That's when the kool aid question came up(see previous)...

Although his wife took longer, and I had no involvement, she eventually saw how even she, with her silver spoon treatment, was manipulated. Apparently the big bang started when they said something to him like his wife should go live with believers a few days. Other things were never told to me, because it was none of my business.

Eventually the floodgates of what went on began to open. Btw, the wife's family had a hand in it, because they weren't too crazy of spending their riches on a church. But they supported and loved their daughter, or were looking out for their money who knows?

I got a call from this friend once, about a year after his departure. He told me his wife and him were doing fine, somewhere near the Mexican border. We would crack up using Way jargon, and concluding how great it was to be out. That was the last I heard. I worked at the job for about a year then found another one. I moved several times to bury my tracks. Still got those Way letters(see another comment elsewhere how I stopped them).

Yes, Virginia, there is a God!

In the summer of 1983 I had gone back to school for on the job training. I was sitting on a park bench one sunny afternoon eating my lunch. Suddenly...see if this is familiar...a nice looking girl comes up to me out of the blue and says 'Hi, how are you doing?' Oh fine and blah blah blah...my BS antenna had started going into Red Alert mode. Sure as crap the conversation went to god. So I asked who she represented. TWI! gee go figure, and welcome to hell believer of the korn. I asked if soso is still in town. "Why Yes, do you know him? How about and she starts ranting names..." Poor lamb. She had entered to a pure hell that TWI had instilled. She even said I should go back and blah blah blah...*KA-BOOOOOM* I started laying into her like no tomorrow! Yelling in a crowded place telling her what damage her cult and her buddies had inflicted on me. I told her to go take her witness and shove it where the good lord split her! I walked away feeling greatly edified! I think she thought twice next time she was looking for a soul for Weirwille!

[signals]

Inconsistancies in my stories-Reading back there are many inconsistancies in my stories. I apologize for that. Although I have no justification, other than saying that in another comment somewhere I stated that I am here to put those years back together.

I wish people would tell me when they find inconsistancies in my stories. Not because I'll find an excuse, but because it will rattle my brain as to when things happened.

Perhaps I should point out that although I may talk about bad times in TWI, there were some good times, too. Otherwise I would have left the first week of twig. Although I may emphasize the bad, I will eventually talk about the good.

I'm not going to change current posts on all message boards because I want to see what I thought and what was true.

Fact:I claimed I was in TWI for about 5 years, or so, elsewhere. Upon reflection my tenure went from April '77 to Summer of '80. So actual was about or over 3 years. They actually felt like 100. But my bad, and note taken.

Fact:Upon reflection the Virginia story occurred in spring of '82. A fork in the road in my life occurred during 81-83. Thus the mix up.

Reflection:I once confused the summer and winter olympic years. Although I left the WOW program after 4 months, Aug-Nov, there were a couple of WOWs from other families that I had binded with. My own WOW brothers and myself never got along. Somewhere I posted about another WOW and me seeing someone who looked like Chuck Berry. This was a Philly VP gig around Feb. Mar. of 1978. I may have thought it was '80 because of the winter olympics(US beats USSR in hockey!) confusing them with the summer olympic years.

Again please let me know about inconsistancies. KEEP IN MIND, please, that it's more about me than whether you think I'm lying. If you consider me a liar, that is your opinion, and things I write are not to justify, but rather to help me put my life together.

[Steve!]

So who's perfekt?

[dmiller]

quote:

Anyway, I could have sworn that grad went WOW with me, but he actually went in '78, after living with the Corps couple. Another grad and I had signed up in '77. He went to Deluth, Minnesota which he considered a hicktown. Get this...where he was from is still a redneck, backward town of about 500 or so!

Signals -- ahem!! that is DULUTH Minney-soda! :D-->

Can you remember his name?? I moved here in 78, was a wow here that year, and never left (Duluth -- that is).

We had 5 wow families up here that year. Now you have me REALLY curious!

:D--> :D-->

David

[signals]

You do realize that the friend who went to DULUTH, went WOW in '77 with me. Another grad from my pfal class went WOW in '78. He was sent elsewhere.

[dmiller]

quote:

Originally posted by signals:

You do realize that the friend who went to DULUTH, went WOW in '77 with me. Another grad from my pfal class went WOW in '78. He was sent elsewhere.

Ahhh -- I missed that. Chalk up another *inconsistency* on my part! :D-->

David

[lindyhopper]

quote:

So who's perfekt?

Um well, Steve!, I am.

Problem is not everyone's idea of perfect lines up with my one true perfection. But that is not my problem is it? Everyone else just needs to rise up to see my true nature and the nature of the universe around me. :D-->

See perfect smile.

[Dan Carlson]

Signals: You mentioned the virginia thing was in philly-82-right? Was she a hot little blond chick with dark roots,and was it south philly, by any chance?

Utterly given over to the adversary-Jesus Christ!